Nothing in Numbers 19 at all implies that this Sacrifice is something that can only happen once every several centuries because it depends on the birth of an animal far more rare than a Shiny Miltank.
The word for Red used here is Adumah, the feminine form of Adom. Different cultures and different eras have not always defined colors the same way we do, there have been a number of good educational YouTube videos on that, but also a few bad ones that go a little too far with the conclusion they draw from that. I talked about it already in the context of why Orange isn't in the Bible. And since then Tor’s Cabinet of Curiosities did a good video on it.
In the case of Adom as a color, many scholars have already argued Brown is the color actually meant to be associated with Esau and David. It’s the same spelling as a word translated, earth, ground, dirt, dust, and clay. In other words it absolutely can be a word for the normal color(s) of most bovine mammals.
Numbers 19 is the only time Scripture ever pairs this word with the word Parah(Heilfer, Kine, Cow). However, look at the context provided by the further requirements for this animal, it’s supposed to be without blemish or spot and to have never been yoked. The idea is that this is a perfect ideal Heifer. (Which is why we Christians see her as a type of Christ, the perfect Sinless Human being offered as a Sacrifice.)
Its hair color being a rare unhelpful mutation is frankly the opposite of that, I kind of think that’s exactly the kind of blemish that should be disqualifying a Cow from being eligible.
Hebrew had other words for communicating the idea of a color that we modern English speakers could only describe as Red (or maybe Pink). Such as Shaniy and Towla translated interchangeably as Crimson and Scarlet. Or just comparing something to the Color of Blood. Sometimes also Adom appears in the verse, I feel that proves those words are specifying and that Adom alone can apply more broadly.
The Quran and an Aramaic translation by Saadia Gaon imply the Cow was Yellow/Saffron. A color that can be interpreted as Red in some contexts but Yellow in others sound to me like what we today call Orange. Orange cows are not uncommon in The Middle East.
Yosef Qarfih argued the point was the Cow had to be all one color and that any spots of a different color would be seen as blemishes.
The Rabbinic Traditions claim a second one didn't happen till the time of Ezra. However Rabbinic Tradition’s account of the history of the 9 Red Heifer sacrifices also has multiple happen during the administration of the same High Priest a few times.
I believe the Mishna accurately remembers the location of the Adumah Parah sacrifices made during the Second Temple period and I agree with the argument that they describe a location currently in the courtyard of the Domminus Flevit Church on the Mount of Olives.
But then oral traditions tacked on to those accurate memories this romantic idea of it needing to be some super rare special Helfer that only comes along one every thousand years or so.
If the mere existence of an eligible Heifer was itself a Prophetic sign the way so many contemporary Prophecy Enthusiasts insist, then why isn’t it actually mentioned in any Bible Prophecies?
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